Quotes by Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn

A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness.

Art

Numbers

Quality

All art is based on non-conformity.

Art

Art Is

Conformity

Art almost always has its ingredient of impudence, its flouting of established authority, so that it may substitute its own authority and its own enlightenment.

Art

Enlightenment

May

Content may by trivial. But I do not think that any person may pronounce either upon the weight or upon the triviality of an idea before its execution.

Ideas

Thinking

Weight

Every great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.

Blood

Reputation

War

Form is the shape of content.

Form

Shapes

How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black.

Black

Sky

Yellow

I was brought in, not in the photographic department at all, I was brought in on a thing called Special Skills. I was to do posters, pamphlets, murals, propaganda in general, you know.

Propaganda

Skills

Special

I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in the sense of doing buildings for their own sake or a still life or anything like that.

Action

People

Sake

I’ve been asked often what is the difference between an amateur and a professional artist, and I will tell you. An amateur artist is one who works all week at something else so he can paint on Saturday and Sunday. A professional artist is one whose wife works so he can paint all the time.

Artist

Differences

Sunday

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Abstract

Action

Affair

Art

Art Is

Artist

Believe

Black

Blood

Born

Conformity

Conservative

Decision

Differences

Emotional

Enlightenment

Essence

Eye

Fall

Focus

Form

Giving

Ideas

Intuition

Jobs

Lines

Matter

May

Mean

Members

Men

Numbers

Painting

Peculiar

People

Photography

Pride

Propaganda

Quality

Reputation

Sake

Shapes

Skills

Sky

Special

Style

Sunday

Thinking

Today

Vision

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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Quotes by Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn

All art is based on non-conformity.

Art almost always has its ingredient of impudence, its flouting of established authority, so that it may substitute its own authority and its own enlightenment.

Content may by trivial. But I do not think that any person may pronounce either upon the weight or upon the triviality of an idea before its execution.

Every great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.

Form is the shape of content.

How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black.

I was brought in, not in the photographic department at all, I was brought in on a thing called Special Skills. I was to do posters, pamphlets, murals, propaganda in general, you know.

I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in the sense of doing buildings for their own sake or a still life or anything like that.

I’ve been asked often what is the difference between an amateur and a professional artist, and I will tell you. An amateur artist is one who works all week at something else so he can paint on Saturday and Sunday. A professional artist is one whose wife works so he can paint all the time.

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Topics by Ben Shahn

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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